Category Archives: It’s Not Delivery

Pookie suggested as we browsed Baker’s Catalogue in anticipation of the kitchen’s completion that I impulse-buy the deep-dish pizza pan they had on sale. She said all kinds of things about how much she wanted to try making pizza and how she thought it would be so fun, and I agreed. I don’t do it very often, but I really do enjoy making my poor impersonation of pizza; the end result is often quite tasty, but it really doesn’t have much in common with pizzeria pizzas. Perhaps the deep dish pan would change all that!

The pan presents itself as a fancy device, what with the “dough cutting lid” that fits over the top. Basically, it’s a handle-less saute pan with a fitted lid. You place the dough in the pan with a generous overhand, clamp the lid on top, then push off the edges around the lid. Really not all that fancy — it’s like the kitchen utensil version of a brand-name drug that’s been relabeled to extend its patent or something. That said, it was every which kind of fun to use.

I opted to make the dough recipe that came with the pan, and this time I didn’t make my mixer break down while working the dough, unlike a certain challah experience I can think of. It rose like a dream, then rolled beautifully on the acres of granite on our island that I’ve long been dreaming of working dough on. After some cutting-lid action, I smeared on some sauce I’d made the night before out of tomatoes from the farm, then heaped on mozzarella, sausage, green peppers, sauteed onions, Parmesan cheese and some fresh basil. 45 minutes in the oven later, and we had our very own deep-dish pizza. It was amazing! It looked just like a real pizza!

It tasted pretty damn good, too. Next time I’m going to put in a lot more sauce, though. Other than that, I’d consider this a pizza well done!